The Key West Citizen Newspaper, June 7, 1951, Page 9

E crorstcar es eRe THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1951 “CAN WE SAVE THE KEY DEER” Unique Toy Deer * Face Extinction In Their Native Florida Keys (Reprint from Natural History) By ROBERT P. ALLEN Research Associate, National Audubon Society Some years ago, in a restaurant in Key West, where Spanish yel- low fice, boyos (bollos), and tur-/ tle steak were a new and pleas- ant experience, I was astonished at the diminutive size of the mounted deer heads displayed here and there on. the walls. They seemed too small to be real. My, companion explained, rath- er casually, I thought, that these were -heads of a little deer that still inhabited certain of the Lower Florida Keys. . The eyes, he went on, were the normal size supplied to taxidermists, but quite obviously they were. far too large for these tiny heads; ‘Even the antlers were miniatures. “It was my first trip to Florida Keys, and by the time we reached the boyos (bollos) and the, toy deer, I was . completely the Surfeited with extraordinary and) unheard-of natural wonders. Many ‘of them were difficult to believe. It was possible to ac- cept the.region as but the improbable combination of ‘crocodiles, pink spoonbills, pi- rate gold ,rock beauties, butterfly fish, panthers—and now toy deer —seemed like too much to swal- Jow,in one day. After all, this was Florida, U.S.A., not the Great Barrier Reef on the other side of the globe. Or Africa, or the Land of the Golden Fleece. Next day I looked at some of the heads, more closely and found them. to be real enough. I also talked with local people, told’ me that the tiny animals “have always been. here,” al- though the range was then lim- ited to a few keys in the vicinity of Big Pine Key, 20 miles north- east of Key West. Apparently subtropical, | HE REY WEST CITIZEN PAG NINB ‘BARNEY GOOGLE AND SNUFFY SMITH \€ THAT TOM-FOOL~” DID RIDOLES Today’s Anniversaries |ture and almost elfish lines. They jare-about the stature of a big |dog. Their pocket size, in fact, |is their greatest appeal. That {such handsome and delicate lit- |tle creatures should be cruelly jand needlessly killed, sometimes {with a hand ax as they bravely ‘attempt to escape the hounds by swimming, is enough to stir the most distinterested citizen to ac- tion, By comparison, the 300- pound white-tail bucks of the northern forests are not only giants fully six times as large as the biggest Key Deer, but one feels that they are stronger, more jeapable animals, better able to take care of themselves. The lit- tle does are proportionately smaller, and one individual that had been killed by a car on the Overseas Highway. on Big Pine Key weighed only 35 founds, phich is probably close to aver- age for adult femal I helped Jack Watson, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serv. skin this speci- men, and she was an old deer with brown-stained, ‘well-worn ‘teeth. She had_an over-aJl length of only 38 inches and measured 28 inches high at the shoulder. There are several possible ex- | planations as to how these pygmy deer happen to occur in this iso- lated spot. The most convincing is the theory that they went there with the original fauna of the postglacial period, perhaps as {normal-sized deer, evolving to | their present size and character {in that insular environment. Dur- jing the Pleistocene pe }melting ice of the seve {glacial stages raised the [evel of the oceans, bays and |gulfs. It is believed that during |the last or Peorian interglacial |stage, the so-called Pamlico Sea | covered southern Florida up to jabout the present 25-foot con- ‘tour. This means that all of water who southern Florida as we know it{ {today was under water as far up |the peninsula as the Caloosahat- jchee basin. | During the last or Wisconsin \glacial period which tollowed |there was a drastic lowering of from the near-by mainland, so that .a variant may never have | developed. In witness of this, there are a few deer on Key Largo today that appear to be identical with the mainland race. | In the earliest times of man’s occupancy, hunting pressure was | apparently heavier on the Lower | Keys than on the upper group. Hernando d’Escalante Fontaneda, | the Spanish youth who was cast ashore on the keys in 1545 and lived among the savage Calusas for seventeen years, spoke in his Memoirs of “many deer’ and | mentioned the Indian settleme on the “Islands of Cuchiyaga,” | which interpreted as meaning the Lower Keys. The botanist J. K. Small wrote, “On the lower Florida Keys, where game | abounded, man Jeft his mark The upper Florida Keys did not offer a hunting-ground for the red man or much vegetation in the wav of subs he passed them t mocks still remain to little interest in those } show island: There are a few kitchen middens his | on Key | Key Largo and Plantation but these ‘could have been ¢asual camping pla on fishing e itions It is well known that the abori- gines set fire to hammocks to 2e | facilitate their frimitive means of hunting. As with the Ever- glades Keys, probably the larger of the Lowe? K weré once covered with hardwood —ham- mocks, similar to those that can still be seen on upper Key Largo and_on Plantation Key. Succes sive fires set by Indian hunters destroyed the humus and ex- posed the honeycombed _ rock, and. thé elements did the © rest. Hardwoods were finished. Only | \the relatively fireproof’ slash or |Caribbean pine and the saw pal imetto were able to thrive. It is in this habitat, surrounded by \fringes of buttonwood and man- | grove forest, that the remnants of |the little Key Deer survive to- } day. It has been suggested that these pygmy deer may have been the'deer were hunted in and out! Water levels, perhaps to as much | ‘ntroduced from the West Indies of season and were greatly re-! duced In numbers. We visited their habitat on Big Pine, and after tramping through the pine and ‘paltnetto, the mosquitoes and heat, without seeing anything ex- cept a few small tracks even wonder that these miniature deer survived at all. Fires had swept through the slash pine (Pinus caribaea) not too long be- fore, leaving a floor of bare, bad- ly eroded rock and wide areas of Wlackened trunks. There were adjacent ridges of tropical button- wood’ (Conocarpus erecta) that were free of fire damage, as were the’ adjacent fringes of black and ted mangroves, but at first glance it. seemed a poor environment. At’ several places on the road there were eloquent little heaps of empty shotgun shells, some of them not even weathered. During the next few years, an effort was made by the National Audubon Society to prevent the shooting of the deer through the cooperation of landowne' state, authorities. Educational work was undertaken in Key West. A bill was passed by the state legislature giving temporary protection, and it was later re- placed by 2 game commission regulation, Then came World War ‘I, and our concern for the deer, along with ‘many other projects of a similar nature, was put aside. Only today, a dozen years after our first interest in their predicament, are definite stéps being taken to learn more of thesé unusual animals and to pteserve them and their habitat. What does the Key Deer look like, and what are these little animals doing in this isolated and seemingly unfavorable en- viron:nent? Many people have asked these questions. 3 The Key Deer (Odocoileus vir-} ginianus clavium) is the smallest of the several races of white tailed deer, There are some who believe that it is sufficiently dif ferent to be placed in a separate category as a distinct species, but this is a problem for the § tematists and is only of academic interest to the conservationist. The fact that it is unlike our other native deer on so. many counts ,and that its complete de- struction would mean the extine- tion of a unique and irreplace- able form, is more than enough to enlist our sympathy and our strong interest in ‘its survival: In general appearance the Key Deer’ looks like a diminutive whitetail, except that its propor= tions never approack the mag- nificent, Michigan or Pennsylvania for- ests, It is a dwarf-like animal. The largest bucks, whieh have been reported to reach a maxi~ mum weight of 55 pounds, an average of something under 50 pounds, are built ‘along minia- in. the} #4 " mud of the roady.we could agreg{ with irregular as to their apparent rarity and | Passe as in large bucks of the | with | 20 feet or more below rresent \Jevels. As a result, there was a jlong passage of time during which jthe Florida mainland of today was joined to the entire string ¢ {keys by a land bridge. Florida | Bay was a dry lowland, traced estuaries. to almost any point on the ke’ As the water level gradually \turned to the present shore Jine, ‘deer and other animals were \probably cut off and eventually isolated. There are marked ditferences ‘between the Upper and Lower Keys. The former—the keys jclosest to the mainland—were ‘once a living coral reef, and the |present, heights of land were once two fathoms or more be- neath the The limestone | formation of these keys is unique, and other tropical hardwoods Much of the hammock, however, has long since been destroyed to make room for plantations of pinearples, tomatoes, and other! crops, and is still giving way to provide spacé for tourist cabins, lunch stands, and winter — cot- tages, The Lower Keys, from Big Pine to the Marquesas, are built on a formation of Miami oblite. | This is identical with that which ‘extends beneath Florida Bay and ‘across a portion of Monroe County on the mainland, across all of Dade County and a portion of Broward, These keys are simply ‘the higher areas of land that re- {mained above the’ sea after the fluctuating levels began to rise toward their present height. On them only limited patches of hardwood hammock remain, most ‘of the larger keys being covered with slash pine and palmetto, The isolation of the Upper and ) Lower Keys from the mainland | and from each other is fairly ap- |parent. The flora of the upper group is chiefly Bahaman, while that of the lower group has much fn common with the mainland in \the pinelands around Homestead fand Florida City, although West Indian and particularly Cuban jplants are not uncommon. Once he sea shut off ¢: from these two regions i veloped its own peculiar charac- Iteristics. Deer trapped on the | Lewer Keys were cut off by Ba- \hia Honda Channel and by the wide stretch of open water lying jbetween the Bahia Honda group lof keys and Knight Key, at the southwest extremity of the Upper Keys. Key Vaca, Long Key, and ‘other more or Jess isolated is- ‘Wands in the upper group may ‘have been shut off also, so that |they too could have developed lvariant races of deer, as they idid, to our knowledge, develop isubspecific forms of the raccoon. i However, there are no records. | Key Largo provided a_ suitable habitat, but there was probably la tendency for the deer on this key to mingle with whitetails Deer |No white settlers until much: la- ‘easily from the mainland tter? J i | this diminutive race has | by settlers, but the native deer of ‘Cuba is a larger animal than the | Key Deer. And it cannot be over- | looked that Fontaneda found deer numerous, apparently on the |Lower Keys, “in ‘the _mid-six- teenth century, and there were It'.seem$ more likely dhat:) survived | jhere since early times, attaining |their present stature ‘and charac- | | teris' through the slow’ and devious frocesses of. natural se- | lection. It also seems likely that these ; little animals, would ni have | needed many special adjus to live in this environment. Last summer Jack Watson found a great many water holes, fresh | enough to drink from if you are not particular about a strong al gal flavor, and fresh enough to support cattails and saw gr There were ¢ a surprising number of alligators—the only amples of this reptile south of Everglades. (The: salt-wate; habitat of Florida Bay and the Upper Keys is not the U.S. home | lof the alligator but of the Ameri- can crocodile.) Evidently these tiny deer have survived in that environment for many thousands years and continue to do so, even after the heedless shooting of the last two or three genera-| tions. That they are now in danger of extinction is not due to; the inadequacy of their habitat. | It is the result of shooting, run-j ning with dogs, losses on the} Ove’ Highway where a steady tgll is taken by speeding cars, and the ever-present threats of fire and expanding real estate developments. There may be no more than 30 of these toy deer alive today, but there is still a chance of saving them. Wide publicity of their plight, in recent months, has aroused public opinion in the The Boa Constrictor (Contributed by Ross Allen's Reptile Institute, Silver Springs, Florida) THE BOA CONSTRICTOR is a big snake found from Mexico to South America. It reaches a length of 12 feet, and occasionally It is not poisonous, and does not harm man, It | feeds on rats and mice, and becomes gentle in captivity. | @ little mote. young are born alive. Because ured, boa constrictors are often used in shows and exhibits. peace Gena essayist, tol, R. I jot the Miami Herald, put on a/ | sponse | to surivive | pealing character. CALL OUT TH’ at \ NAVY AN’ MARINE CORE !! WE-UNS GOT TO SAVE ,— Samuel M. Crothers, cul- Mass., 1857. tured Cambridge, \DJIT OON'T GIT / EVER PAY YE BACK KILT DEADER'N ( THAT THUTTY CENTS A DOORKNOB, HE OWED YE, SUT P clergy in Oswego, Ill. Died Nov TH' SMOKESTACK ON THAT INFUNNEL | [ITLL SHORE THAT PORE FELLER'S/ > 1863—Albert S. Burlesor RUNAWAY MACHINE, SNUFFY-- HE HAD | IsuspRise me! LIFE ! i } son's postmaster-gene bo THE OTHER END TIED TO HIS WRIST San Marcos, Tex. Died Nov. 24 AN*-HAW-HAW! HE TOOK OFF 1937 LIKE'A ROMAN CANDLE !! 1865—Edwin E. son, chern ist, popular author turer scientifie subjects, born bany, Kan Died Oct 1866—D; Cc. } emin University of Wisconsin ar Princeton historian, born in Bris- Died Jan 1 i Today’s Horosco pe Today gives fair opportunit success and there may be inheritance. The native is tional and likes the good th life. The intellectual powers may not be particularly brilliant and much labor will be needed to ac som em complish good results. Try to culti vate energy of action and con STOP! THERE SwAL serve the resources to the utm« BE NO WAR DAN UNTIL I GVE THE 1SCO WOULD NOT YOU MUST TRUST BESIDES, YOU GA\ WORD NOT TO ae CROCODILE FOSTER FAMILY MELBOURNE. — (P) young Ballarat sportsmen about to become “foster-fathers to 20 man-eating crocodi Bill Rowe and John Hut son brought the crocodile « from Queensland. Four hayc ready hajchéed, others are crack ing. Hutchinson said they would lake careapf the young crocodile: in a spe@ial pool, with infra-red heating, keep-them a few month then give them to zoos. defense gf the Key Deer. A con-} certed cf is now under way to set a: a suitable area as aj federal réfuge for this handsome, rare, andeexeeedingly interesting example of the native wildlife! that is a valuable her e of this land ove, which we have taken cominatida. Many Organizations, agencies, | and individuals have taken a} hand in “this"endeavor. The U. S,| Fish and Wildlife Service has provided effective warden patrol | and is prepared to administer the proposed refuge. The Florida’ Game and Fresh Water Fist Commissien;the Florida Wildlife | Federation, the Monroe County’ udubon Society, the National, udubon Society, and a number| of others are glso interested. A] en” Corsén, Conservation Editor 1 YOU ARO." campaign asking readers to ex- press their views, and the re-| THIMBLE THEATRE—Starrir was overwhelmingly in} favor of a federal refuge for the Key Deer. Congressman Charles! =. Bennett of Jacksonville, dur- ing the last session of Congress, introduced a bill—H.R. 7524—the passage of which, along with companion bill S. 3286, intro- duced by Senator Claude Pepper, would authorize acquisition of needed lands within the Key Deer Range. The House _ bill passed, but the Senate bill failed committee considera- tion. It will be reintroduced in the 82nd Congress. This tiny animal . was a ‘native of the, Keys for some thousands of years before the arrival of the white man. It is a beautiful creature, with a gentle and ap It is a livir and attractive part of the scenery, more a part of Florida than the} introduced “flamingos at Hialeah race track or the lush hotels that} crowd Mtami* Beach. It belongs If it is not provided for and pro tected from, ignorant and irre sponsible gpeople who would slaughter We last member of its Bau! race, its passing will be on all O'CLOCK IN ; c , its. pass a : 5 i at : TH’ MORRINY eur heads. Every conservatior TH BLENATOR WHERE WE LIVE--- ist should make a personal effort ISN'T EVEN THEN WE COULDN'T on behalf of this deserving and seriously Wfbreatened — animal Write your representatives in Congressurging them to support the passage of a bill to provide refuge for the Key Deer. Help save this i) aie American! FIND OUR KEYS ~ al! 1 HEAR THAT DINAH'S GONE ON OZARKS YOU WONT GET TO. FIRST BASEON UPSETTIN’ HIS HITTIN BY MAKIN’ HIM JEALOUS J Its they are hardy and good-nat- | Bh ROR TI ine tno as vers x